One Bowl Baking: Chewy Malted Chocolate Chip Cookies

I've been hooked on malt ever since my mom came home with the first jar of Ovaltine. Obviously her goal was to get her kids to drink more milk and it worked. If you're like me and you can't get enough of malt, these cookies will do you right. Malted milk powder baked into a cookie creates a deep, nutty-sweet layer of flavor to completely elevate a chocolate chip cookie into a really special treat.

Getting malt flavor into a baked good is easier said than done however. Unlike stirring a few tablespoons of malted milk powder into a glass of cold milk and being rewarded with knock your socks off flavor, baking is trickier. With all of the other ingredients coming into play, the malt flavor becomes subtle. And aside from the malt flavor, the milk powder is an issue. My first round at swapping out some of the sugar for the sweet Carnation malted milk powder resulted in a soft, cakey cookie. To achieve the dense, chewy texture that I was after, along with heaps of maltiness, I wound up eliminating the egg—with surprising results. The cookie emerged from the oven sturdy and chewy. To boost the chewiness, I stirred in a few tablespoons of honey (though I'd love to see what effect malt syrup has on the flavor).

For the chips, milk chocolate is a natural to pair with malt as they're chocolatey without being overpowering. These cookies are out of this world when eaten right out of the oven, while the chocolate is still gooey and they're buttery crisp around the edges. But then again, is there really any better way to enjoy a chocolate chip cookie?